Eighth Grade Latin I-For High School Credit

Recommended Prerequisite: None

Grade Offered: 8^th

Credit: ½ to 1

State Code: 0803

MNPS Course Code: FLA1079Y

Course Description

Reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills focus on similarities between Latin and the student’s own language (i.e., derivatives, grammar and syntax, vocabulary), while building the ability to read and comprehend continuous Latin.  The study of Roman culture, history, and mythology lays a base for appreciating Western culture.  Basic forms, syntax, vocabulary and culture are taught via readings in English and in Latin, structured practice, and multimedia presentations and projects.

Course of Study

Grammatical Concepts: The student will be able to use and understand…..

• Verbs                                                                                                                 o       Six tenses of the active indicative (Conjugations 1-4)                                     o       Three tenses of the passive Indicative (present, imperfect, and future)            o       Present active and passive infinitives (all conjugations)                                  o       Irregular verbs such as sum, eo, fero, volo, nolo, malo, and their compounds o       Positive and negative commands (including irregular imperative forms)          o       Subject/verb agreement
Nouns
• Case endings for nouns of first, second, and third declensions
• Case functions in Latin corresponding to English equivalents
• Appositives and their uses
• Adjectives
• Positive adjectives from first, second, & third declensions
• Noun/Adjective agreement
• Cardinal and ordinal numbers
• Adverbs
• Interrogative adverbs
• Formation of adverbs from adjectives
• Adverbs of time
• Pronouns
• Personal
• Interrogative
• Relative
• Pronoun/antecedent concepts
• Prepositions
• Standards prepositions and the cases used by their objects
• Prepositional functions indicated by case endings (e.g., ablative of time, genitive of possession, etc.)
• Interjections
• Standard interjections as presented by text (e.g., Heu, Ecce, etc.)
• Exclamatory accusative (e.g., O me miserum!)
• Conjunctions
• Coordinate conjunctions
• Correlative conjunctions
• Subordinate conjunctions

Objectives: The student will be capable of…..

• Mastery and application of the rules of classical pronunciation
• Acquisition, recognition, and application of new vocabulary
• Exchange of greetings and personal information (e.g., Salve!)
• Asking and replying to simple questions
• Projects (group or individual) investigating daily life activities and identifying their products
• Listing of activities that took place in daily classical life
• Exploration of basic classical mythology and of classical politics
• Use of geography and history to place the classical world in its cultural setting
• Simple, oral presentations about family, mythology, history, and life
• Identifying and comparing patterns of behavior or interactions in a variety of everyday settings
• Reading comprehension
• Rudimentary sentence patterns (Latin-English and English-Latin translation)
• Expansion of English vocabulary by connections to Latin words recently learned
• Identifying, discussing, analyzing, and evaluating the relationships among the heritage, practices, and perspectives of the culture.

Latin I Strategies: The student will be capable of performing the following tasks…..

• Selective listening
• Selective reading
• Use of context clues and word building skills to extrapolate meaning
• Memorization and application of vocabulary in context
• Recognition of gender in foreign languages
• Recognition of differences in sound system, writing system, and word order between Latin and English (and possibly other Romance languages)
• Identification  and use of derivatives in everyday communication
• Discussing the unique advantages of studying a classical language
• Recognizing how classical languages have influenced modern culture and heritage
• Note-taking from texts and from presentations
• Use of appropriate internet resources
• Finding on a map countries and geographic landmarks, where the target language formerly was spoken
• Identifying countries and geographic features by ancient and modern names
• Demonstration of vocabulary and syntax mastery
• Classification and presentation of material in spoken, visual, and written contexts
• Identifying modern counterparts of classical cultural, linguistic, and institutional conventions
• Identification, discussion, analysis, and evaluation of the impact of Latin on modern languages, art, law, architecture, etc.
• Use of material from the language class in other school subject areas (geography and social sciences, art history, etc.)
• Use of information from other subjects in the foreign language class
• Recognizing some famous classical figures from history and mythology
• Synthesizing what has been learned about ancient cultures in a product of the student’s own
• Use of materials from the target language and culture for enjoyment

Thematic Vocabulary

• Incorporates vocabulary essential for reading and understanding the classical world, with particular emphasis on vocabulary used by Caesar, Cicero, Pliny, Vergil, Catullus, Horace, and Ovid, as these authors are read in upper level courses
• Incorporates Latin word-building skills as a part of vocabulary acquisition (e.g., the use of prefixes, suffixes, and roots)
• Incorporates connections between Latin and modern languages, so that both vocabularies are enhanced (e.g., Latin phrases used in English, derivatives, cognates, etc.)
• Incorporates vocabulary connected to Roman life, literature, history, architecture, government, and mythology, as appropriate in context.

Standards

This course content outline is aligned with National and Tennessee Standards for classical languages.   Tennessee Standards can be accessed at http://www.state.tn.us/education/ci/ciforeignlang/ciflclassic.htm .

Textbook

Latin for Americans 1 published by Glencoe

Recommended Resources

Ecce Romani I published by Pearson, Prentice, Hall

The Cambridge Latin Course published by Cambridge University Press

These organizations have materials and useful information:

The American Classical League, Miami University at Oxford, Ohio

The Classical Association of the Middle West and South (www.camws.org)

The National Committee of Latin and Greek (www.promotelatin.org)

The American Classical League and the Junior Classical League (http://www.tjcl.org)